 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: Merry
Date: 1999-02-19 11:11
One of my students uses my old Boosey and Hawkes intermediate clarinet. I regularly give it a routine check-up and this time I noticed a fine hairline crack in the barrel. What is the best solution? Should I get it pinned or can I get a replacement barrel for it? I know these clarinets are not in production any more so could I put another type of barrel on it? The wood looks really dry in the barrel but the rest of the instrument appears OK, thank goodness but what should I do?
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Rick2
Date: 1999-02-19 14:52
Does the crack go through to the bore? If not, I think I'd probably (at the risk of opening up this argument again) just oil the whole instrument and play on it until the crack causes problems, then pin it. You might also keep your eyes on ebay. Every once in a while somebody posts lot of odds and ends, and you might get lucky and find a B&H barrel.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Mark P.
Date: 1999-02-19 15:00
Matter of fact, you can buy entire B&H intermediate clarinets on eBay for anywhere from 60-100 bucks. I bought an Edgeware last fall for 100 that looks like it wasn't played much then put away, needs a repad at this point but wood and keys are beautiful.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: paul
Date: 1999-02-19 15:06
Is it only the barrel that's cracked? If the clarinet is fairly modern, try another barrel on it for general fit, tuning, and tone. Replacement barrels of various brands are available, but the tuning may be slightly different. If another barrel works, then do a price estimate of a replacement barrel versus getting the original one pinned. Select the least expensive alternative.
The WW/BW catalog has several "replacement" barrels listed from a bunch of second and third party companies. You are always the first party. A second party company would be a Buffet barrel for a Buffet clarinet and a third party barrel would be a DEG barrel for a Selmer clarinet, etc.
Also consider oiling the wood for an older clarinet. This is a controversial subject, but maybe occasional oil treatments could help keep cracks from forming on other parts of your clarinet.
The crack could have started with improper warm-up procedures. Since it's your horn that you are loaning out, make sure you give very strict instructions for folks to properly warm up the horn before playing it. Then train your students as part of their lesson on the warm-up procedures. Tell them to make sure the outer bore is warm to the touch from the mouthpiece all the way down to the middle tenon. Tell the students to hold the horn in their hands to get the outer part of the horn warmed up. A simple test for the outside of the horn being warmed up is when the student can no longer feel the metal keys on the upper joint being "cold" to the touch. Then, tell the student to softly blow warm air into the horn without making a sound while fingering low chalemeau E for about 5 minutes or so until the mouthpiece and barrel feel slightly warm to the touch. The low chalemeau E seals the entire bore of the horn, forcing the warm air all the way through it, finally exiting from the bell.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Doug
Date: 1999-02-20 00:39
The Boosey & Hawkes is a large bore clarinet, so it would
not be easy to find a replacement barrel with correct bore
from the usual supply houses. However, since the instrument
is not of great value, you might simply clean the area of the crack with lacquer thinner, or lacking that, finger nail
polish remover, and cover the crack line with super glue.
This will seal and strengthen the crack area; if you should
want to remove the glue at some point in the future, use
super glue remover. You can even leave the super glue on
the crack, and buff the area to remove excessive glue and
still have the crack sealed.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Dee
Date: 1999-02-20 03:38
Doug wrote:
-------------------------------
The Boosey & Hawkes is a large bore clarinet, so it would
not be easy to find a replacement barrel with correct bore
from the usual supply houses. However, since the instrument
is not of great value, you might simply clean the area of the crack with lacquer thinner, or lacking that, finger nail
polish remover, and cover the crack line with super glue.
This will seal and strengthen the crack area; if you should
want to remove the glue at some point in the future, use
super glue remover. You can even leave the super glue on
the crack, and buff the area to remove excessive glue and
still have the crack sealed.
-------------------------------
Such a repair is amateurish at best and will cheapen the appearance and value of the instrument. Since barrels are short, they can usually be fixed with a single pin. Here that would cost about $25.
Plus barrels for large bore clarinets ARE available. I had an old Pan American that was large bore and the barrel cracked. I got a new barrel through the local music store where I lived. You may have to work through the catalogs and you definitely have to specify that you have a large bore type instrument, but you can get them. There are large bore instruments still being made today. They just aren't as popular as they once were.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Merry
Date: 1999-02-20 05:38
The crack is on the bore unfortunately. The clarinet may not be worth much on the American market but is still worth quite a bit in Australia. I might try to find a new barrel for it if I can find one to fit. Does anyone know what the actual bore size of the Boosey and Hawkes Emporer clarinet is?
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Mark Charette
Date: 1999-02-20 16:23
Dee wrote:
-------------------------------
Doug wrote:
-------------------------------
The Boosey & Hawkes is a large bore clarinet, so it would
not be easy to find a replacement barrel with correct bore
from the usual supply houses. However, since the instrument
is not of great value, you might simply clean the area of the crack with lacquer thinner, or lacking that, finger nail
polish remover, and cover the crack line with super glue.
This will seal and strengthen the crack area; if you should
want to remove the glue at some point in the future, use
super glue remover. You can even leave the super glue on
the crack, and buff the area to remove excessive glue and
still have the crack sealed.
-------------------------------
Such a repair is amateurish at best and will cheapen the appearance and value of the instrument. Since barrels are short, they can usually be fixed with a single pin. Here that would cost about $25.
---
Dee,
Using Superglue as a crack repair method is now becoming very common - much more common than pinning. Pinning is now being reserved for large cracks that won't close up (along witha few new methods of banding),
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Dee
Date: 1999-02-20 18:00
Mark Charette wrote:
-------------------------------
Dee,
Using Superglue as a crack repair method is now becoming very common - much more common than pinning. Pinning is now being reserved for large cracks that won't close up (along witha few new methods of banding),
-------------------------------
I was assuming that the person was intending to do it themselves from the way they asked the question and that they had never done it before. The ones that I have actually seen have been in that category and were awful. However, I can easily picture a qualified tech developing a procedure to use Superglue that would be both practical and have a good appearance to it.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
